There are myriad problems at the Jobcentre, and what we have found out is likely to be the tip of the iceberg. We were told by one claimant that her Income Support claim was left untouched for four months, losing her and her son nine hundred pounds lost in benefits. On another occasion a claimant attended the Jobcentre on five occasions before receiving an explanation for a sudden cut in her benefits. The delay in receiving the information caused her to miss an important deadline for appealing the decision.

As well as seeking a resolution to particular claimants' issues, we centred our demands around four main points. We asked that documents that are needed to assess benefits claims are photocopied by the Jobcentre themselves and for the claimant to be given a receipt. We demanded that claimants are able to freely use the telephones situated in the Jobcentre to call up the central benefits department in order to enquire about their benefits and to make job enquiries. We demanded that staff facilitate and be helpful to people with problems with their claim, especially in the circumstances where a person is having problems communicating. And finally, for people to be treated with courtesy and decency at all times.

We entered the Jobcentre as a group and walked up to the reception desk. We were careful not to prevent anyone coming in to approach the reception and use jobcentre services. Claimants attempted to explain in a very reasonable manner to reception staff why we were there and how the problems with the Jobcentre had become so severe and persistent that there was no other means of resolving the issues they had. Most staff, unsurprisingly, were rude and dismissive of our problems, and were not willing to constructively deal with the issues we were presenting. However, one member of staff expressed her agreement with our demands, even in front of her manager.

Whilst were in there we did manage to hand out leaflets and talk to other claimants about why we were taking action, and many claimants expressed their support and about how they had experienced the same problems.

Despite us attempting to deal with the issues peacefully and constructively, the numerous security staff typically intimidated us, tried to prevent a photographer taking photos of our action, and tried to prevent us handing out leaflets outlining our grievances to other claimants, and he instantly called the police. Within ten minutes about five police officers had arrived and we exited the Jobcentre as a group as we had previously planned our response would be. The heavy handedness of the police made matters worse as our dialogue with staff was cut off, and the police seized the photographers' camera and searched him. We then had to negotiate via the police to get two claimants' meetings with the manager so they could present their problems in full.

One claimant, had a meeting with the manager the next day, and a member of LCAP attended the Jobcentre with her for support and to take notes. When they arrived at the Jobcentre for the appointment security staff and the manager were rude and obstructive, and would not let the accompanying LCAP advocate in with the claimant to give her the support she needed. The LCAP member was even refused access to wait inside the building whilst the claimant had her meeting.

We are not going to let these issues lie, and we are planning our next steps to see that our demands are met and that dealings with the Jobcentre cease to be unbearable for many.

Update:

The next claimant to go for their appointment with management refused to enter for the appointment without a supporter present. It is a basic right to be able to have someone with you in a interview, especially as there has been bad treatment of these claimants in the past. Two days later the claimant returned with four more supporters, and we demanded entry. The security guards locked the doors and made us stand in the cold, even though we had a child with us. This was puzzling to the other claimants who couldn't see why we were such a big danger, and we gave out leaflets and talked to them, finding out many of them were having similar problems. Some different managers came down and talked to us, keeping us outside the building still, promising more appointments with the top manager, but only if the person attends alone.

On Wednesday (September 11th) they again refused entry unless the claimant entered alone without a supporter to accompany her to the interview. This time the staff decided to ignore us, and eventually sent the police to get rid of us, although we were just standing outside. We did however notice that Claimants were being allowed to use the phone when they asked (one of our demands), and we also had some good conversations with some of the other claimants.


We will keep the pressure on Dalston Job Centre - Get in touch with LCAP if you would like to help with the campaign or have similar problems.

London Coalition Against Poverty - http://www.lcap.org.uk/